The gifts of the Holy Spirit (1)

The gifts of the Holy Spirit, which is popular through Pentecostal and Charismatic Movement, is the preferred teachings as well as hated by the people who call themselves Christian. Catholic Church, because they still remembered the bad memories in the past against Montanism doctrine that developed in the latter half of the 2nd century in Phrygia, there is a feeling suspicious and wary of the manifestations that are recognized as the work of the Holy Spirit that leads to suspicion of charisma of the Holy Spirit. Even in a liturgical book titled: Rituale Romanum, written around the year 1000 it is mentioned that during the manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit be seen as signs that a person possessed by evil spirits that need to hold an exorcism.

In contrast, the Eastern Church (Orthodox) have never opposed the gifts of the Holy Spirit and tend to be more open to the manifestations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Pneumatology occupies a very important place in the Eastern Church since ancient times until today. Eastern Church believes that miracles and extraordinary signs of the Holy Spirit never ceases to work in the Church for over 2000 years, so that the Orthodox Church considers that no fundamental right and not when there is a statement that the Holy Spirit has left the Church and the new restored in these last days with the emergence of reform movements of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

There are fundamental differences in emphasis on the gifts of the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God. Charismatic Renewal Movement emphasized the nine kinds of the gifts of the Holy Spirit listed in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10, while the Eastern Church emphasized the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God as taught by the prophet Isaiah found in Isaiah 11:2.

Mainstream Protestant churches, as expressed by figures of Reformation: Martin Luther and John Calvin, firmly oppose all manifestations of spirituality that show signs of the influence of movement Enthusiasm. In line with the new mission field that is part of the North American continent and the Industrial Revolution in Europe came the various movements of holiness which lead to the emergence of Pentecostalism and Charismatic, as shoots of Methodism of John Wesley style, with his Wesleyan perfectionism.

READING LIST

-Allan Anderson, An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004)
-D. William Faupel, The Everlasting Gospel: The Significance of Eschatology in the Development of Pentecostal Thought (JPTSup 10, Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1996)
-Roland A. Knox, Enthusiasm: A Chapter in the History of Religion (New York: Galaxy Books, 1961)